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‘Christmas’ Makes Michael Bublé’s Year

By Ben Sisario December 21, 2011 12:55 pmDecember 21, 2011 12:55 pm

Coming soon as stuffing to a million or two stockings: Michael Bublé.

Reprise/Wea, via Associated Press

That singer’s latest album, “Christmas” (143/Reprise), is this year’s holiday hit, and this week it tops the Billboard album chart for the fifth time with 448,000 albums sold, bringing its total close to 2 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan. With two sales weeks left in 2011, “Christmas” is the third-best-selling album of the year, Billboard said.

Last weekend Mr. Bublé played along while “Saturday Night Live” had some fun with his success, which might have helped his sales as well as those of Justin Bieber (played in the “SNL” skit by a mute, break-dancing Jimmy Fallon). Mr. Bieber’s “Under the Mistletoe” (Island) rose one spot this week to No. 3 with 171,000 sales.

Also on the charts this week, the Black Keys’ “El Camino” (Nonesuch) fell two spots to No. 4 in its second week out with 85,000 sales, a 59 percent drop. And “Own the Night” (Capitol Nashville), the most recent release by the country-pop trio Lady Antebellum, had a big re-entry into the Top 10. After the band made two high-profile television appearances last week — “Good Morning America” and “Live With Kelly,” both on ABC — the album jumped 10 spots to No. 5 in its 14th week out, selling 81,000, a 60 percent gain from the week before.

With holiday sales in full swing, record labels have released few new contenders for the top spots. The highest-charting new album this week is Anthony Hamilton’s “Back to Love” (RCA), which sold 63,000 copies to open at No. 12.

Album sales are up slightly over last year, a trend that has given record labels a small reason to celebrate. The 307.8 million albums sold so far in 2011 represent a 1 percent increase over the same period last year. But you don’t have to look very far back in history for some sobering perspective. In 2008, for example, a total of 428 million albums were sold.